As has so often been the case, the longest of the Classics fell to the man who spent the shortest amount of time at the front. At almost 300 kilometres,Milan-San Remo is a race of patience as much as it is of endurance, and John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) showed both qualities in abundance as he emerged in the final 50 metres to claim victory.

Last year’s winner Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) had looked set to confirm pre-race expectations when he was ushered into the box seat by teammate Luca Paolini with a little over a kilometre remaining, but the Via Roma after seven hours of racing is a finishing straight like no other.

Kristoff was forced to open his effort from distance – or at least, sooner than he would have liked – and he was swamped in the final 100 metres. Degenkolb swooped past to take the spoils, while Kristoff just held off Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) and a blanket of riders for second place.

Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) was among them, and he had to settle for fourth after opening his sprint from quite a way back. The Slovak had shown his eagerness on the Poggio when he attempted to bridge across to attackers Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) and Geraint Thomas (Sky), and he even briefly found himself at the very front of the race with two kilometres remaining. A costly error, perhaps.

Degenkolb, by contrast, maintained a watching brief during that breathless finale, always well-positioned on the climbs, but never once exposing himself to the wind before it was absolutely necessary. His was an approach ripped straight from the Oscar Freire playbook and, as its wont, La Classicissima rewarded intelligence as much as it did strength.

“It was a really tough race, a beautiful victory. It’s a race that really suits me, it’s perfect for me and now it’s mine,” Degenkolb said. “The team helped me perfectly as far as the Poggio. I was always near the front positions on the descent and then I just gave it my all in the sprint.”

Kristoff’s words after the podium ceremony echoed the lament of so many beaten men on the Via Roma over the years. Milan-San Remo’s traditional finishing straight returned to the route this time around after an eight-year hiatus and, once again, that almost imperceptible rise to the line made a whole world of difference.

“Luca Paolini did great work for me. On the Poggio, he was fantastic and he practically brought me all the way to Via Roma. He led me out wonderfully and I gave it my all,” Kristoff said. “Unfortunately, Degenkolb passed me on a slightly uphill finishing straight. Those last 50 metres seemed liked they’d never end. Maybe I went too early…”

The Norwegian’s hopes had already seemed to be ebbing away on the Cipressa, where Team Sky and BMC’s aggression left him dangling at the rear of the reduced peloton like a loose tooth, but – not for the first time – Paolini was La Primavera’s best supporting actor. The bearded Italian kept Kristoff in touch there, and then led the bunch almost all the way up the Poggio, with Kristoff tucked on his wheel in second position.

With other fast men, including Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep) and André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) losing contact on the Poggio, the balance looked to be tilting towards Kristoff, though as ever in Milan-San Remo, there were late cameos and twists.

On the climb itself, Thomas, who was already off the front with Daniel Oss (BMC), powered away alone, while closer to the summit, Greg Van Avermaet showcased his form with a searing acceleration that saw him bridge across to the Welshman at the top of the descent.

Sagan and Matthews, meanwhile, also made an attempt to track the move in the company of Julian Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing), but ultimately found themselves caught in no man’s land and the race came back together on the plunge down into San Remo.

“I followed Sagan on the Poggio to stay with him but it wasn’t the moment,” Matthews said. “Kristoff was strong in the finale but I left it too late in the sprint. I had good legs in the finale, maybe I was the fastest. It’s one of the best results of my career but I’m disappointed.”

Such is the terrible beauty of Milan-San Remo, as Degenkolb could attest. Twelve months ago, a late puncture eliminated the German from contention, and he fought back the tears as he considered his turn in fortunes.

“One year ago it was the biggest disappointment in my career. I had the legs to be there and sprint like today like I did today but it took me almost a week to get over it,” he said. “When I look back now it’s really unbelievable, from the deepest to the highest point: that was the emotion.”

How it unfolded

For the third successive year, steady rain and low temperatures greeted the peloton as they lined up beneath Milan’s Arco della Pace and it was decidedly more winter than primavera for the entire trundle through the flatlands of Lombardy and Piedmont as far as the Passo del Turchino

Katusha and Trek Factory Racing were perhaps the most diligent of the pace-setters in the peloton in the opening 200 kilometres, and they ensured that the deficit was down to just five minutes by the time they crested the summit of the Turchino and began the drop towards the Riviera.

Mercifully, the rain abated as the afternoon progressed, and while it wasn’t quite spring on the Ligurian coast, the roads were at least almost dry by the time the race hit the capi in the final 50 kilometres. Those headlands fractured the unity of the break – Matteo Bono slipped away alone – but they also stirred Team Sky into action in the peloton.

Luke Rowe took up the reins on the Capo Berta, with Thomas and Ben Swift tucked in behind him, and when their teammate Salvatore Puccio’s wheels slid from under him on the descent, that trio found themselves with a gap over the peloton. Rather than sit up, Rowe elected to keep forcing the pace, and by the base of the Cipressa, they had picked off the remnants of the early break, though Orica-GreenEdge’s brief spell of chasing meant that the bunch was always within touching distance and they were caught as the climb began.

On the Cipressa, it became clear that Sky and BMC were determined to make the race as selective as possible in a bid to shake off the pure fast men. Silvan Dillier, Van Avermaet and Thomas, along with an impressive Zdenek Stybar (Etixx-QuickStep), enjoyed a brief rally off the front, and when that petered out, Lars Peter Nordhaug’s brisk tempo put Kristoff, Cavendish, Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) and Greipel in difficulty.

Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida) enjoyed a brief cameo on the descent, but as the road flattened out, Oss and Thomas forged clear. With Oss performing the bulk of the pace-setting, the duo established a lead of 30 seconds with 15 kilometres remaining, but it was shorn back to 17 seconds as they began the climb of the Poggio.

Once the gradient stiffened, Thomas struck out alone, and while Paolini was now leading the bunch in support of Kristoff, he was making no inroads into the deficit on the climb. 700 metres from the summit, Philippe Gilbert (BMC) launched a testing acceleration but it was his teammate Van Avermaet who eventually broke the deadlock, ripping clear of the chase group and setting out in pursuit of Thomas.

Van Avermaet would lead all the way down the descent – where Gilbert, Gerald Ciolek, Stybar and Michal Kwiatokowski all crashed out of contention – and then try to forge away as the road flattened out, only to relent inside the final two kilometres.

When Paolini took over in support of Kristoff and led a group of 30 or so riders past the famous fountain and onto the Via Roma, it began to feel like a case of what Yogi Berra would call déjà vu all over again. But one can never step in the same river twice, and this time victory washed over John Degenkolb.

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